Trust God

But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had. Genesis 12:17-20

To fully grasp these verses you would have to read the whole chapter but I don’t have room to include the whole chapter in one devotional but we will discuss the previous verses in order to better understand the ones above. The first three verses are promises from God to Abram. God called Abram to leave his country and his family and in turn he would bless him and his future generations. Abram was obedient even though he was already 75 years old without children; he believed God would bless him with a son. In verse seven, God makes yet another promise concerning the land in which He had Abram settle in. The promise is that the land would belong to his descendants.

In verses 10-20 there was a famine in the land of Canaan and Abram and his wife traveled to the land of Egypt where there was food. Here we see the display of a very human reaction and a tool that the enemy uses against Christians – fear. Abram felt fear because he saw that his wife was beautiful and feared that he would be killed by the Egyptians so that Pharoah could have his wife. So he came up with a plan to say that his wife was his sister rather than his wife, not knowing that this would cause more harm than good. Many times God speaks to our lives and makes promises to us and ask us to trust Him, yet when we experience fear, we forget that trust and act on our own survival instincts. God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man to change His mind. If He said He would be with you wherever you go, then He will be with you wherever you go. Abram had not yet realized the faithfulness of God in His life at that point because He did not stand on God’s promise and trusted his own instincts and lied about Sarai being his sister.

Now look at God’s faithfulness, mercy and sovereignty in this situation. Not only did he bless and prosper Abram in this land but He also protected him and his family from harm and the Pharoah’s desire for Sarai. Since Abram said that Sarai was his sister, Pharoah saw no wrong in desiring her for himself because she was beautiful, but God plagued him. Praise the Lord!!! God warns us before we make mistakes!! Pharoah did not know that he desired a married woman but the Lord took his sleep and gave him dreams to let him know not to touch her. Pharoah’s response was as we read in the above verses, to send Abram on his way with his wife. Not only that but everything that he had acquired while he was there he took with him. God blessed Abram but the blessing could have been greater had Abram trusted God to preserve his life and told the truth about Sarai being his wife.

In application to us today, we must trust God with all that we have, all that we are, and all that we will be. Sometimes we allow fear to enter our lives through situations, people, or our own emotions, our own lack of self confidence, our own lack of trust in others and in God. When we enter situations where the unknown plays a major factor in the outcome, we must trust God for our deliverance, sustenance, and everything else. We cannot and must not compromise because we are afraid! The God we serve will never leave us nor forsake us. Abram’s fear could’ve cost him his wife and the promises that God had for them both, but God did not allow that happen. Mercifully He intervened and plagued Pharoah and his house and by doing so He protected Abram, Sarai, AND Pharoah! Although Pharoah did not know the Lord, God is merciful and desires that all be saved and therefore sent warnings so that Pharoah would not sin against God and against His anointed. God gives us chances to repent and He makes a way for us when in trouble. Abram feared and did not allow God to bless him the way He wanted to while in Egypt, but He still blessed him and never left him. Praise God!!! God bless you!

Come Forth!

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” John 11:38-44

There are several points that I want to touch on in this passage. This is a very familiar passage and most know of the story of Lazarus but there are some human and divine characteristics in Jesus that are revealed in this passage that I want to point out. There are also some comparisons between Lazarus and us before and after coming to Christ that I noticed.

Jesus experienced three human emotions on His way to and at the grave of His friend Lazarus. He felt sadness for the people around who thought that He wept for His dear friend. He was sad because of their unbelief, because they could not see that the One they had waited for was before them. He felt compassion because they were like lost sheep and He being the Good Shepherd had come to find them and bring them back to the fold. He felt compassion for their physical, mental, emotional, and most importantly spiritual needs. He felt frustration because there were many that walked with Him that had not yet grasped who He really was and what He had the power to do. He was frustrated that the people would not believe in the love and mercy that brought Him to them without signs and miracles and even then, most did not receive what He came to offer.

In His divinity He could see the thoughts and intents of every heart standing there. In His divinity He knew the outcome of that scenario before He got there and He knew those who would believe and those who wouldn’t. I imagine this knowledge would bring on all three human emotions at once. After all, though He is the Son of God, He walked among men as a man. Experiencing all the emotions that men feel, experiencing pain as man feels it, yet without sin.

Jesus knew that Lazarus would not be dead long even after he was buried yet it had to happen this way to glorify the Father and so that those that would believe would have their opportunity to witness the glory of God. Martha, although she knew the Lord and believed that whatever He asked the Father was His, needed to witness this event so that she would fully understand that Jesus is the Messiah she was waiting for. That is why He tells her “if you believe, you will see the glory of God.” In this passage He reminds her of what He said in a question. Didn’t I tell you?

At the tomb, Jesus prays to the Father before calling Lazarus for the benefit of those around Him, that they would understand that the Father sent Him, that He was not just an ordinary prophet. He wanted them to understand that He was among them because He was sent from above, that He was the One the Scriptures spoke about, the Messiah.

Ever think about why Jesus called Lazarus by his name when He could’ve just said come forth and why He waited four days to do it? He called him by name because although their may have been many Lazarus’s in that time, there was only one Lazarus who knew the voice of Jesus. Had he said come forth possibly all those who walked with Him before would have risen so He specifically called him by his name. He waited four days so there would be no doubt that Lazarus was dead when Jesus resurrected him.

Now if you look at the last two verses, 43 & 44, this is where I see a comparison and at the same time the reason Jesus came into our world. The bible says that Lazarus was bound from head to foot. Think about where you were before you turned to Jesus, you were bound from head to toe in bondage and sin. Jesus called Lazarus by name just as one day He called you and I by name and set us free from our bondage. Lazarus or should I say the dead Lazarus is a type of the man without Jesus. He is bound by worldly lusts and desires, bound by the desires of his flesh. Bound by Satan’s grip, not knowing how to escape or be free. What a wonderful and marvelous thing Jesus did for us, that He came to set us free!! Praise God! Jesus told those around Him, to loose him and let him go. The same way Jesus tells Satan, when a person comes to Christ and receives salvation, “loose him and let him go.” Oh my God, my God, my God!!! How awesome is our Lord and Savior!!!!! All glory and honor belong to Him for all eternity!! He sets us free from bondage!!!! Satan has to loose us and let us go because we are now the property of Christ!!! Bought by His precious blood!!! Hallelujah!!! Oh my God! I am feeling the presence of God in such a powerful way right now that I just want to shout!

Lazarus’s resurrection had to come to pass to show us what Jesus truly came for! He came to set the captives free!!!! To save the lost, heal the sick, and deliver those captive!!!! Thank you Jesus!!! You see, when we are in sin, we are spiritually dead, we are bound as Lazarus was in graveclothes that represent the chains that had us bound, but when we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are like Lazarus coming out of the grave of spiritual death and resurrecting as new creatures in Christ!! The old Lazarus did not come out of that grave but the new Lazarus who knew His Lord. Our old man is buried and our new man, our spirit man is resurrected to glorify Almighty God!!!! Santo!!! Praise the Lord!!!

If you are walking with Christ, take this moment to praise Him for His sacrifice for you and me and thank Him for setting you free. If you don’t know Christ, I ask you this – why would you want to live in chains when you can be set free and live life abundantly? Jesus is knocking on your door, will you let Him in and dine with Him or will you ignore the knocking in hopes that it will go away? Receive His free gift today because tomorrow is not promised and you may not have another opportunity. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Jesus is calling you by name, answer Him with a “yes Lord” and allow Him to set you free. God bless you!

Experience Grace

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:7

We hear about grace all the time in sermons, in books, in songs, and in the Word. Yet what is grace?? How many of us truly know what grace is? Do we appreciate it as we should or do we simply accept it as part of the package that comes with being a Christian? Have we truly experienced grace in its purest form?

The online dictionary (dictionary.com) defines grace as such:
The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.
The influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

So if we paraphrase the above the verses according to these definitions they would read something like this:

For by the unmerited favor and love of God you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the Holy Spirit the gift of God, not of your own actions, behavior or righteousness, lest anyone should take credit for it.

But to each one of us unmerited favor was given according to the measure of Christ’s influence operating in us.

Grace is God’s love and favor lavished upon humanity to the point that He gave His only Son to allow us to receive that grace. It is because God loved us and favored us that He provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him. It is because He loved us and favored us that He chose us, called us, set us apart to do a work for His glory, sanctified us, and called us sons and daughters of the Most High God. It is because He loved us and favored us that His Holy Spirit abides in us and empowers us to continue to press forward in that which He has called us. It is because He loved and favored us that His Son died on a cross and rose again on the third day to become our Mediator, our Lord, our Savior, our Defense Attorney, our Hope, our Prince of Peace, our
Redeemer. Praise the Lord!!

It is by grace that we are saved through faith and not of ourselves. We could not save ourselves from the imminent end that would come to our lives and the eternal suffering that we would have to suffer had not Christ paid the price for us. It was and is the love of God that saved us and continues to save. It was divine favor that appointed a day in our lives in which we would meet our Savior and receive His free gift of salvation. It is because God remembered that we were perfect in our creation but sin made us imperfect therefore He made a way for us to be perfect again when we are with Him. One day, when we go home to our Father, we will be perfect. Until that day we are imperfect human beings striving towards the day that we will be made perfect again as God intended. We cannot take the credit for anything we have done or accomplished in this life because we did not accomplish anything in ourselves but the favor of God is what allows us to do anything, without Him we can do nothing.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. We have been saved by grace but now we must walk in grace and live in grace as we grow in and mature in the Lord. We each have been given a gift according to the abundance of Christ. I read several versions of this verse in order to better grasp the meaning of the latter part of the verse – the measure of Christ’s gift. One version, called the Easy-to-read version (studylight.org parallel bible) reads: “Christ gave each one of us a special gift. Each person received what Christ wanted to give that person”. This verse deals specifically with the gift you’ve been given by grace according to what the Lord wanted to give you. This gift that enables you to stand out in a certain area was given to you because God loves you and showed you favor. For this reason we cannot boast about our capabilities, gifts or anything else God does through us because it is by grace that we are able to do them. It is because Christ gave us a gift that we are able to operate in a certain way, but all the credit belongs to Him.

To truly experience grace you have to experience Christ. You have to see yourself in your truest form in the eyes of God – human, fallible, sinful, desperately needing Him. Before we come to Jesus, we are a mess that has no way of undoing itself by our own strength, understanding, or power. The mess that we are only Jesus can fix. When we see ourselves in that light, small, insignificant, people capable of making a mess of our lives quite easily, we see that God’s love and unmerited favor has sustained us. We see that without Jesus our lives have no value, purpose, or direction. We experience the need for a savior, but not a human savior because though someone may be able to something better than you, they are still human, capable of making their own mess rendering themselves powerless to save anyone.

The only One with the power to save is Jesus and when you come to the conclusion where you surrender your mess to Him and let Him sort through it to bring the real you out of it, then you have experienced Christ and you have experienced grace. God bless you.

As Far As the East is From the West

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:10, 12 & 14

Many times since I started walking with the Lord, I have thought about where He has brought me from. Truly He has not dealt with me according to my sins. It is good to reflect on the things God has done for us, on who we were before we encountered Christ and who we are now in Him. You can’t help but be grateful and praise His name because who you or I were before did not deserve the mercy that provided a way to be reconciled to God.

The second verse in this chapter says “Bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not His benefits.” This ties into the above verses because when you remember His benefits, you remember where you were the day that mercy came running to you. You remember who you were back then, however long it’s been, and realize He has not dealt with you according to your sins or punished you according to your iniquities. There is a difference between sin and iniquity though many believe them to be the same. To sin is to miss the mark, to break the law of God. Iniquity or to be iniquitous is to deviate from God’s law or live in lawlessness. Where sin is to break the law of God, iniquity is the absence of God’s law in one’s life. We lived in the absence of God’s law in our lives before we found Jesus. Wow! Forget not His benefits.

Though some of us may have been raised in the church, it does not mean that we were not living a lawless life. If you think about it, before you actually made a commitment to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior you pretty much refrained from doing certain things because your parents taught you that it was wrong in the eyes of God. I wasn’t raised in the church and I was taught the same thing. Yet the choice is ours whether or not we will accept God’s mercy and live according to His will or continue in our iniquity. Praise the Lord that many of us have made that decision already and we are FOR Christ. But if you haven’t made that decision yet, don’t wait because tomorrow can be too late!

At the moment that we let Jesus into our hearts verse 12 says that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions.” Do you know what that means?! It means that our sins, our violations of His law, our life of lawlessness no longer exist to Him! Our slate is totally clean! We are knew creatures, a new Christine, a new you in Christ Jesus! Bless the Lord O my soul!!!

Verse 14 says “for He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” I don’t know about you but that makes me want to shout! He remembers that we are not perfect, that we are only human, and that we are prone to sin! He remembers the elements used in our creation when He created us, DUST! He remembers that because we are dust, we cannot be all that He created us to be without His help! He remembers that when He created us, He created us with free will – the right to choose – and sometimes our choices leave much to be desired. He is not our dictator so stands aside when our choices don’t include Him until we ask for help. Our frame….our body…..this flesh or shell that encases our soul and spirit, what a beautiful way to put it! God remembers that we are flesh and has mercy on His beloved creation and sends His only begotten Son as a bridge to fill the gap between Him and His creation – us! What a wonderful, merciful, loving Father we have in our God.

There is always so much to say and little time to say it but I want to leave you with this thought. Sometimes you can fall into the monotony of routine and lose sight of His many “benefits.” I know because I have found myself in that condition on more than one occasion. I have learned though that when your service to the Lord feels like a routine, a duty, a habit or anything but joy, passion, and love for our Father and the desire to please Him – think back to where you were before the day that He saved you. This is not dwelling in the past, it is remembering the wonders that God has done in your life, starting with the salvation of your soul. It is going back to the day when you first fell in love with Him and falling in love all over again! It is blessing His wonderful name despite your current situation because in your current situation He is there with you regardless of what it looks like. The world is a lonely place when you don’t have purpose, when you don’t know what you were created for but when you have Jesus, your purpose is defined and the reason you were created becomes your joy. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits!

If anyone reading this today does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life and have not yet experienced the joy, love, and mercy of our Heavenly Father, I invite you today to make the decision that will determine whether your life will be one with a defined purpose or one of no purpose. Jesus loves you and died a brutal death on the cross for you and for me. All you have to do is invite Him in. Confess that you are a sinner and your need for Him to transform your life, believe that He is able and willing to forgive you and wash you clean, and receive His free gift of salvation. The bible says that when believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, we shall be saved. Experience the joy of the Lord, receive Christ today and begin the journey God predestined for you. He loves you more than you can possibly imagine. God bless you!

Are You Still Without Understanding?

So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Matthew 15:16-20

Let’s back up a little to understand why Jesus asks “are you still without understanding?” Jesus was with His disciples and the Pharisees approached Him accusing the disciples of “transgressing the tradition of the elders” because they did not wash their hands before they ate bread. Jesus in turn asked them a question. “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” He then turns to the people who were there and speaks to them in parables concerning what defiles a man. Afterward Peter asked Him to explain the parable, and so the question “are you still without understanding?”

The disciples walked with Him, ate with Him, talked with Him, watched Him perform miracles and by that time they should have understood His language even when speaking in parables, but just because they walked, talked, and ate with Him does not mean that they were always in the Spirit. The flesh cannot understand the language of the Spirit; it can only imitate it to create a façade of being something that it’s not. (I hope that made sense.) Let me give you an example of what mean when I use the word façade. There are people who sit in churches today, who sing with us, pray with us, and listen to the word with us BUT they are not walking in the Spirit. They know the word and may even look like they live a holy life, but that’s all it is – show, a façade, what they want others to believe about them. People who walk in the Spirit can see through a façade and are not easily fooled. So back to the disciples, they were still seeing things with their natural eyes and not their spiritual eyes so Jesus had to break it down to them again, yet the question remains “are you still without understanding?”

There is a misconception in the world about what a Christian is. Many people believe that when one becomes a Christian one ceases to have fun. Not true! Others believe that when one becomes a Christian one is perfect. Definitely and absolutely not true! I would say that when you become a Christian you have more fun. Not in the sense that the world considers fun but fun in the Lord. When you become a Christian, you will not be perfect until you are in heaven with the Lord, but you strive for perfection and that is the difference. We WILL make mistakes it’s inevitable but how you react to those mistakes and whether or not you learn from it determine your stage in maturity or your stage of growth. For this reason we must be careful what we inject into our minds. What we watch, read, or listen to goes into our minds and then into our hearts. Once it is in our hearts it comes out in some kind of physical action, usually out of our mouths. The things we say. What we receive in our minds goes into our hearts and determines the kind of person or the kind of Christian we will be. Let me give you an example.

Many of you have heard this analogy before but I will use it anyway. ;) The mind is like a computer. You store information in it and save it for when you need it if you don’t need it at the moment. Half the stuff you learn in school you don’t need it at the moment but later on in life you will. So if you save junk in your computer eventually you will get a virus that will wipe out your hard drive and you will have to start all over again. Ever noticed that viruses are called worms? Some of them don’t damage your computer right away; they worm their way through and then BAM!!! Your hard drive is wiped out. It’s the same way with the mind. When you store junk in your brain, (negative comments said about you, movies that are morbidly violent, sexually explicit, or the language is too graphic, music that does not worship God, etc.) eventually you will start speaking and acting like what you watch and what you hear if not right away. My aunt always used to say (and probably still does) “garbage in, garbage out.”
On the flip side, if you fill your mind with the word of God and APPLY it or practice it, you will speak and act according to the word.

Jesus told the people and His disciples that it is not what enters a man’s mouth that defiles him; it is what comes of out the mouth that defiles a man because out of the abundance of the heart the man speaks. If your heart is full of anger, you will speak angry words and be a violent person. If your heart is filled with bitterness, you will speak misery and be a miserable person. If your heart is full of love, you will speak loving words and be a loving person. So it’s all about what you put in your mind that goes into your heart and comes out of your mouth. Jesus further explains to the disciples that what goes into the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated. Most people go to the bathroom not long after they have eaten; this is the body eliminating what went into the mouth and stomach. But, what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart and from the heart comes all kinds of evil and He proceeds to list these evils: evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. How do these things get into the heart??!! The mind!!!! People wake up!!!! Be careful what you allow your mind to entertain because it may lead you to sin!! It’s like the virus worm in your computer that worms its way into your thoughts and then your heart till finally BAM!! You’ve acted on it or spoken on it and it has cost you dearly. So now I ask you “are you still without understanding?”

Heavenly Father,
Help us to be ever mindful that the things that we speak would not defile us or offend You. If we have believed an evil report about ourselves from someone else and it has caused us to be bitter, angry, or hateful, heal us Father and make us whole again. Remind us of what You say about us in Your word. Father help us to take care of what we listen to – that would not lend our ear to gossip, slander, or any conversation that does not uplift Your name. That we would not lend our ear to listen to music that profanes Your name or watch anything that would invite “junk” into our minds and hearts. Help us to be aware of when that worm is trying to intrude in our thoughts and worm its way into our hearts and not allow it. Help us to pray for one another and uplift each other in the spirit of unity and the bond of peace for that is what Your word tells us to do. Bless all who read this today and remind them of Your word so that they can detect the worm when it tries to come in with negative thoughts, with lies spoken into their lives, with memories of their past. Thank you Father for all that You do, all that You’ve done, and all that You will do for Your children.

In Jesus name,
Amen